Recently, an animal model for neurodevelopmental disorders has been developed. In this model, the effects of an early neonatal (postnatal day 7 [Pd 7]) basolateral amygdala lesion are compared with the effects of a lesion later in life (Pd 21). The reported data indicate that amygdala damage at a specific ...

OBJECTIVE: To survey brain death criteria throughout the world. BACKGROUND: The clinical diagnosis of brain death allows organ donation or withdrawal of support. Declaration of brain death follows a certain set of examinations. The code of practice throughout the world has not been systematically investigated. METHODS: Brain death guidelines in ...

Recent evidence points to an association between intrauterine infection and cerebral palsy (CP) in the preterm as well as the term infant. The mechanisms that link these two conditions are unclear. Chorioamnionitis is a common clinical problem complicating 5-10% of pregnancies, whereas the incidence of CP attributed to intrapartum asphyxia ...

This paper presents details of the development of recursive thought from early infancy to early childhood. During this period the child is said to face the task of developing a "representational theory of mind." In earlier writings I have suggested eight developmental stages of modeling of mind emerging from brain ...

The formation of amyloid plaques is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amyloid plaques and vascular amyloid deposits in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) consist of the beta-amyloid protein (Abeta) in association with other proteins. These Abeta-deposits can be visualized by thioflavin S, Congo red staining, silver staining methods and immunohistochemistry. ...

The results of more than four decades of research on different mammalian species have established that the brain, like the rest of the reproductive system, is esentially basically female. For the male to develop structural and functional characteristics typical of his species, his brain must be exposed to testicular hormones ...

Our aim was to assess brain myo-inositol/creatine plus phosphocreatine (Cr) in the first week in term infants with neonatal encephalopathy using localized short echo time proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and to relate this to measures of brain injury, specifically lactate/Cr in the first week, basal ganglia changes on magnetic resonance ...

[5-(13)C,(15)N]Glutamine, with (1)J((13)C-(15)N) of 16 Hz, was observed in vivo in the brain of spontaneously breathing rats by (13)C MRS at 4.7 T. The brain [5-(13)C]glutamine peak consisted of the doublet from [5-(13)C,(15)N]glutamine and the center [5-(13)C,(14)N]glutamine peak, resulting in an apparent triplet with a separation of 8 Hz. The ...

Antenatal glucocorticoid (GC) therapy improves infant outcome following preterm birth. As approximately 50% of women given a first course of antenatal GCs remain undelivered 7-14 d later, many clinicians administer further courses. GCs are known to be neurotoxic and there is concern that exposure during early development may have adverse ...

Nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) is a rare metabolic brain disease caused by deficient activity of the glycine cleavage system. Localized proton MR spectroscopy (echo-time 166 msec), performed in an infant with the typical clinical and biochemical features of neonatal NKH, showed a markedly increased peak intensity at 3.55 ppm, which was ...

Abstract. The aim of this study is to clarify the timing of brain injuries in preterm infants who later developed West syndrome. We assessed the timing of brain insults with serial EEG recordings beginning immediately after birth in preterm infants less than 33 weeks of gestational age. The timing of ...

Definitions of death are based on subjective standards, priorities, and social conventions rather than on objective facts about the state of human physiology. It is the meaning assigned to the facts that determines when someone may be deemed to have died, not the facts themselves. Even though subjective standards for ...

Infants are subjected to both endogenous and exogenous corticosteroids in the pre- and postnatal periods. Stress to the mother before birth, or to the child postpartum, can give rise to high, chronic endogenous corticosteroid levels caused by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Physician-administered exogenous corticosteroids are also used in ...

Brain edema may occur in infants with galactosemia and has been associated with accumulation of galactitol. Proton magnetic resonance spectra were obtained from 12 patients (four newly diagnosed neonates and eight patients on galactose-restricted diets, age range 1.7-47 years) and control subjects to measure brain galactitol levels in vivo and ...

The present study assessed the role of the cholinergic systems on the expression of perforant path long-term potentiation (LTP) in rat hippocampal slices from the infant and adult brain. To denervate the cholinergic systems, 192 IgG--saporin was injected into the lateral ventricle of the infant (2-weeks-old) and adult (6-weeks-old) rat ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of single and repeated courses of antenatal corticosteroids on brain growth in very preterm babies. DESIGN: Retrospective study of 110 very preterm babies delivered at a single University Teaching Hospital between 1992 and 1999 who had a full necropsy including detailed examination of the brain. ...

Over the past 25 years, our perception of the neonatal kidney has changed markedly from its being a "limited" organ compared with that of the adult to being extraordinarily well adapted in its role in maintaining homeostasis and making possible the rapid somatic growth necessary during this critical period of ...

Hypoglycemia frequently occurs in newborn infants who previously have suffered asphyxia, who are offspring of diabetic mothers, or who are low birthweight for gestational age (IUGR). Many infants who are hypoglycemic do not exhibit clinical manifestations, while others are symptomatic and at risk for the occurrence of permanent brain damage. ...

To investigate fetal brain development in vivo using early postnatal cranial MRI in term and preterm newborn infants. 51 infants, 1.5-T whole-body system, extremity coil, spin-echo images obtained in all three planes (T1- and T2-weighted). Independent review by two neuroradiologists (blinded for gestational age and medical history) regarding the development ...

Brain death is defined as the complete and irreversible absence of all brain function. It is diagnosed by means of rigorous testing at the bedside. The advent of neurologic or brain death criteria to establish the death of a person was a significant departure from the traditional way of defining ...

OBJECTIVE: Subcortical white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and small cystic lesions are the radiologic hallmark of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), a hereditary angiopathy causing stroke in young adults. To further characterize the cerebral pathology in vivo we analyzed metabolite concentrations in normal and abnormal appearing ...

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate how to measure the magnitude of expression of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) facial phenotype using the new 4-Digit Diagnostic Code and the previously developed D-score and to demonstrate how these two measures of the FAS facial phenotype correlate with brain function ...

The accruing evidence that a fetal inflammatory response is the link between antenatal infection and white matter damage in the preterm newborn infant offers room for speculation how this harmful sequence could be interrupted. Enhancement of endogenous protection, response modification, and damage limitation downstream could be helpful strategies for intervention ...

Infants with the cholesterol synthesis defect Smith- Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLO) have reduced activity of the enzyme 7-dehydrocholesterol-7-reductase and accumulate 7-dehydrocholesterol, with the highest concentration in the brain. As a result of the generally reduced content of cholesterol, plasma levels of oxysterols would be expected to be reduced. 24S-hydroxycholesterol is almost ...

Bleedings in the ganglionic eminence (GE) being a prominent domain of the telencephalic proliferative zone is a frequent complication of preterm infants. Such bleedings may induce cellular responses in the vicinity of the lesion. Using immunohistochemistry, this study demonstrates for the first time that leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) belonging to ...

Abscess formation by Salmonella species is an uncommon but significant manifestation of salmonellosis, because this type of infection has high morbidity and mortality rates and is a potential nosocomial hazard. In infants, history of consumption of contaminated water should be especially quired. We report a case who had sepsis and ...

Caffeine is frequently administered to human pre-term newborns although its neurological impact has not been fully evaluated. In the present study performed in mice, we examined the effects of caffeine administration on neonatal excitotoxic lesions of the periventricular white matter, which mimics several aspects of human periventricular leukomalacia. In this ...

Brain damage in the premature or full-term fetus or newborn infant encompasses multiple patterns of injury, many considered to be anomalous in origin. However, there is increasing evidence that such congenital lesions arise as a consequence of hypoxia or ischemia (reperfusion failure). Animal models have been helpful in elucidating the ...

Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia (PHI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. A substantial part of PHI-related brain damage occurs upon reperfusion and reoxygenation by the excess production of excitatory amino acids, free (pro)radicals and the release of cytokines, triggering programmed cell death. In this respect, several neuroprotective agents have been ...

Decrease in the arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO(2)) causes a reduction in cerebral blood flow in humans and in most animal species; in adults as well as in newborns and even in fetal life. Severely decreased PaCO(2) increases cerebral lactate production, modifies spontaneous electric brain activity, and may ...

We review research evidence on the emergence and development of active "self-and-other" awareness in infancy, and examine the importance of its motives and emotions to mental health practice with children. This relates to how communication begins and develops in infancy, how it influences the individual subject's movement, perception, and learning, ...

Ischemia is the most frequent pathogenetic mechanism of brain lesions in infancy. The authors give a brief report on the recent advances achieved in knowledge of the underlying neuropathology, clinical manifestations, strategies of management and outcome of ischemic brain lesions in the newborn. A better knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms is ...

Stenosis of the cerebral aqueduct seems to be a key event for the development of congenital hydrocephalus. The causes of such a stenosis are not well known. Overholser et al. in 1954 (Anat Rec 120:917-933) proposed the hypothesis that a dysfunction of the subcommissural organ (SCO) leads to aqueductal stenosis ...

The main question asked in the present study was whether support could be found for the notion that supraspinal influences on the generation of spontaneous kicking movements become increasingly apparent in the first half-year after birth. In comparing groups of infants with and without damage in tracts connected with the ...

Perinatal asphyxia remains a major cause of acute mortality and of permanent neurodevelopmental disability in infants and children. However, the pathophysiologic features of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy are still incompletely understood. Animal studies have been focussing on grey matter pathology but information on white matter lesions is limited. The aim of the ...

AIM: To demonstrate that quantitative EEG (qEEG) can be used as a non-invasive measure of brain injury by establishing normative data in term infants and contrasting it with other modalities of brain imaging. DESIGN: qEEG during quiet sleep was performed on 13 healthy full-term infants comprising a normal group and ...

This report describes a fatal case of cerebral edema caused by adenovirus in a previously healthy 18-month-old infant who developed skin rash, pulmonary congestion, and fever and who died 6 days later. Adenovirus hexon gene sequences were detected in brain tissue and brain tissue cultures. The virus was typed as ...

The phenology of damage by the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), on nectarines was investigated using sticky cards and direct sampling of buds between 1993 and 1995 in the interior of British Columbia, the most susceptible period for damage by western flower thrips to nectarines. The life stage responsible ...

Infants with hydranencephaly are presumed to have a reduced life expectancy, with a survival of several weeks to months. Rarely, patients with prolonged survival have been reported, but these infants may have had other neurologic conditions that mimicked hydranencephaly, such as massive hydrocephalus or holoprosencephaly. We report two infants with ...

The relationship between MR patterns of brain damage and type or timing of perinatal hypoxia-ischemia was studied. MR images of 104 children with evidence of bilateral posthypoxic-ischemic brain damage and neonatal records were reviewed. Three different MR patterns were found. Periventricular leukomalacia occurred in 73 children, in 82% after a ...

OBJECTIVE: Quantitative measurements of mean water diffusivity (D(av)) were made in human neonates, infants, and adults to assess changes in brain tissue that occur with maturation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Values of D(av) were obtained by calculating the average of the diffusion measurements made with diffusion-sensitizing gradients placed along three orthogonal ...

Severe neonatal hypernatraemia is a life-threatening electrolyte disorder because of its neurological complications. These are brain oedema, intracranial haemorrhages, haemorrhagic infarcts and thromboses. There are few reports concerning the radiological findings in the central nervous system in severe neonatal hypernatraemia. Cranial MRI findings in hypernatraemia have been reported in an ...

Amnesic shellfish poisoning, one of the shellfish poisoning syndromes, is caused by the marine diatom toxin domoic acid (DOM). While in adult rats, mice, monkeys and humans DOM poorly penetrates the blood-brain barrier, DOM has been shown to be very toxic to fetal in newborn mice, because the blood-brain barrier ...

The hedonic impact of taste is reflected in affective facial reactions made by human infants, other primates, and even rats. Originally studied in human infants, affective reactions to taste have also been used by affective neuroscience to identify hedonic brain systems in studies of animals (via application of neural stimulation, ...

Whether it is that animals are young so that they can play, or whether it is that they play because they are young, play should be more prevalent in species that have a greater degree of postnatal development. This hypothesis is tested by comparative analyses within two mammalian orders (primates ...

Apoptosis is essential for normal human neurodevelopment and is increasingly recognized for its role in various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Bcl-2 is a 26 kDa membrane-associated protein known to protect neurons against apoptosis. Interestingly, Bcl-2 protein levels are altered in certain neurodegenerative disorders that reveal increased ...